


Young Skeletons Play It Safe

by LunarisXXXIII



Series: The Tinkerer's Guide to The Multiverse [3]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Fake Science, More tags to be added, Multiverse Shenanigans, Real puns, Swearing, pranks gone wrong
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:13:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25448905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunarisXXXIII/pseuds/LunarisXXXIII
Summary: The newly nicknamed Edge and Red take their first steps into the multiverse.
Series: The Tinkerer's Guide to The Multiverse [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1585552
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	1. Baby Steps

**Author's Note:**

> Red and Edge visiting Swapfell

"Is everyone ready?" Rus asks excitedly and as much as Red doesn't want to admit it, he's right there with him. Nothing like defying all previously known laws of physics to get the blood pumping after all.

"Indeed we are. Our destination is SwapFell this time correct?" His brother, now known as Edge, asked.

"Quite right Edgy-Me! We will be meeting with Razz and Slim just outside of their Snowdin and teleporting most of the way to their house to avoid arousing suspicion." Rus says cheerfully as if they're not about to get dropped into the middle of what is essentially enemy territory.

"Red, did you have something to add?" Rus asks innocently, having noticed his mounting tension.

Oh right. Red was the glorious new nickname he'd been given for traveling the multiverse. It wasn't great, but that was his own fault really, he'd pretty much forgotten about coming up with a nickname until the last minute, forcing him to make up something on the fly. There had been that guy Blue mentioned last time, so he'd figured Red was acceptable creativity-wise at least.

"nah, sounds good." He replies and though Rus doesn't look completely convinced, he continues his speech that Red almost immediately tunes out. It wasn't like he hadn't gone over the goddamn pamphlet Rus had sent them on this anyway.

Eventually Rus gave his brother the word to start up their machine, Comic now quickly inputting coordinates for the universe and a whole buncha other stuff before setting the machine to run.

"okay, i tethered you guys to a spot between Snowdin and Waterfall, we should be seeing the portal open up there in a sec." Comic informs them all, hands still flying across the keyboard to input data.

Sure enough, moments later a tear in reality appears, not completely unlike how a shortcut looks from the outside, the only difference being that instead of only being able to see endless darkness within, there's a familiar snowy path rimmed with trees and light brush.

"Excellent job brother!" Rus shouts in Comic's direction before turning back to him and Edge. "Let us not keep Slim and Razz waiting!" 

And with that the cheery skeleton walked through the portal, the tear stretching to allow him to pass through. Edge, eager to see this new world, followed closely after creating a similar odd effect on the portal as he passed through. Just as he's about to step through the tear after his brother, Comic pipes up from behind him.

"oh shoot, red hold up." 

He turns at the sound of his new nickname, definitely something that was gonna take some getting used to.

"what now? we forget something else on yer stupid checklist?" The annoyance is a given at this point, they'd had to have gone over the stupid rulebook at least five times already and Red was really getting tired of it all.

"uh, sort of? there's something buggy going on with the portal's stabilizers. i'm gonna do what i can to fix it from here, but i really shouldn't tinker too much when the portal's open. just let 'em know i'm gonna be another minute, alright?"

Red narrowed his eyes at Comic, searching for any sign of his usual shenanigans, but the skeleton had already turned back to the console and was typing out line after line of code. 

"sure i guess..." Red agrees cautiously, quickly bracing himself before stepping through the portal after their brothers. 

The moment he enters the tear in space-time he's hit with an overwhelming sense of nausea, like he just traveled through five shaky shortcuts in a row. Just as he's adjusted to that unexpected sensation he's hit by another as whatever 'floor' that had previously held him aloft suddenly falls out from under him and for a terrifying second he's falling through nothingness before his feet hit solid ground again at the same time light and color come back into the world around him. 

Ugh, he finally understood why Papyr- _Edge_ hated taking shortcuts so much.

\-------

Edge leaned against a tree on the other side of the portal nearly doubled over as he tried to regain his composure.

"It's alright Edgy-Me, just take your time." Rus said while patting his back soothingly. 

If he hadn't felt so horrible at the moment, he might've brushed the cheery skeleton off in order to save himself from the embarrassment, but as it was all he could focus on was trying not to puke out his insides. Not that he had those, but the point still stands

"That was a particularly bad jump, I have no idea what my brother was doing. He's normally much more careful than this." Rus offers apologetically.

After a few more awful moments that seemed to drag on for far too long, Edge is finally able to straighten up and get a look at where they were.

They appeared to have landed on the narrow path between Snowdin and Waterfall that was foggy and completely devoid of houses. He knew this place from his own universe and if it was at all similar then their destination shouldn't be more than a few minutes' walk, which was much better than he was expecting given that it was the first jump from their recently-repaired machine.

There was a warble in the air to their right, like the heat lines you could see above lava in Hotland and out of the rippling space steps his brother.

"that felt like shit." He states almost immediately, looking nauseous but infuriatingly managing to stay upright. "lookin' a little green 'round the gills there boss." Red grins mischievously.

Edge very politely flips him off much to his brother's apparent amusement as Rus turns his attention to Red.

"Red, where is my brother? He had better not be fiddling with the machine more, he knows he's not supposed to when we're mid-jump."

"he's fiddling." Red confirms "said he's trying to figure out why the machine's stabilizers 're pretty obviously not working." He states simply, walking out of the mild brush and trees to look further down the foggy path. "he shouldn't be more than a minute or two behind us apparently."

Rus grumbles in annoyance before following Red out towards the path. "I guess it can't be helped now. We might as well try our best to meet up with Razz and Slim, my brother knows the way so he can simply meet us when he gets here." He states simply as he waves them forward, their motley trio carefully keeping towards the side of the road as they begin to make their way towards Swapfell's Snowdin.


	2. Baby Steps 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! Finally got another chapter done!!!

The trek towards Snowdin had been... completely uneventful. 

Following the path hadn't been difficult, thanks in part to the fog gradually thinning as they went. The air was almost completely still as they walked, amplifying the sounds of rushing water and their own footsteps crunching through snow. In his own universe Edge would have expected to see some form of life being this close to town and oddly enough, it was the lack of aggressive, snarling monsters passing them on the road setting his teeth on edge. This place was quieter, more _dead_ for lack of a better term and damn if he wasn't more worried for it.

As their group falls into the shade of a particularly large tree across the path, there's a soft swish of air to his right and Edge realizes a moment too late what it means as a dark shape crashes down onto Red from above, his brother letting out a yelp as he's dropped to the snow.

"HA! YOU LET YOUR GUARD DOWN FOOL!" The figure yells triumphantly and through the thinning mist he can see how they have his brother pinned. Immediately Edge is moving, a bone construct forming in hand as he reels back to strike- 

-Only for another more familiar figure to full-body tackle the monster off of Red, pinning them to the snow.

"when i left you- *huff* -i was the learner, but now _i_ am the master-*puff*." Comic recites dramatically through labored breaths.

"WHAT!? NO!" They shout, struggling to throw him off of them.

Comic suddenly looks over at their group. "hey guys, i made it. figured out what was wrong by the wa- oof!" He's silenced as the figure shoves him off and pins him much like they had done to Red moments ago.

"NICE TRY, BUT YOU ALLOWED YOURSELF TO BECOME DISTRACTED IDIOT PUPIL. NEXT TIME DON'T DROP YOUR GUARD SO EASILY." They announce brushing snow off of their armor with their free hand, the other expertly putting one of Comic's arms into a painful-looking lock.

Edge can finally see their face as they straighten up away from the struggle. They are obviously a Sans; the body type, face and voice were all similar, but instead of the crack his own brother had, this Sans had what looked to be a set of claw marks over their right eye. Rus and Comic said the Sans of this world went by Razz if he remembered correctly.

"tap! i tap!" Comic shouts, tapping Razz's arm with his free hand and Razz complies, releasing his hold the other and getting to his feet. Comic gets up as well, grimacing as he rolls his shoulder. "owwww, did ya have to be so rough?"

"THE ENEMY WILL NOT BE PLAYING NICE, SO NEITHER WILL I." Razz states simply.

"someone wanna explain to me what the fuck that was?" Red growls by now having extricated himself from the snowpoff so he could stare daggers at his two alternates.

"eh, it's just a little thing me and razz have going about him sneaking up on me every time i come here."

"I HAVE OBVIOUSLY TAUGHT YOU WELL ABOUT SETTING TRAPS AT LEAST, I BEGRUDGINGLY ACCEPT YOUR VICTORY OVER ME IN THIS INSTANCE." Razz admits.

"fuck you both, don't involve me in yer stupid shit next time." Red growls and there's less venom in his tone than Edge was expecting after a stunt like that, but he's clearly still pissed. Comic actually has the good sense to look a bit guilty, but Razz...

"IT IS YOUR DAMN OWN FAULT, ALLOWING SOMEONE TO GET THE DROP ON YOU KNOWING YOU WOULD BE IN UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY." Razz declares shaking his head in .

And there went their chance at a peaceful introduction.

Red bristles, his left eye flaring bright with his temper. "ya think yer hot shit pipsqueak? ya don't know who the fuck yer messin' with here, so i'd suggest ya back off." He growls menacingly, but Razz seems unaffected grinning cockily.

"HA! IT IS YOU WHO HAVE NO IDEA WITH WHOM YOU ARE DEALING, FOR I AM THE MALEFICENT SANS, LIEUTENANT OF THIS WORLD'S ROYAL GUARD AND THE ONE WHO WILL CURB THAT NASTY ATTITUDE OF YOURS."

"ya wanna talk about people with bad attitudes, how 'bout ya try a mirror, if ya can find one that doesn't break when ya look in it." Red snarls.

"The both of you need to calm down, this is completely childish!" Rus attempts but is promptly ignored as the two square off.

Edge shoots a glare at Comic, who looks back at him apologetically, raising his hands placatingly as he begins (hopefully) trying to put a stop to the fighting. "hey, can you guys duke it out or whatever when i'm not in the crossfire?" 

Was that seriously his idea of diffusing a situation?!

Comic takes a few steps backwards and away from the two angry monsters, counting steps as he goes. "one... two... three... four... five... six... seven..." He pauses, gauging the distance with two hands held up in front of his face in 'L' shapes. "i think that's far enough, what about you slim?" Sure as shit, Edge blinked and there was another monster now standing next to Comic surveying the indicated space with interest.

Slim seemed similar in both size and demeanor to the few photos Rus had shown him of their alternate Stretch, but sharper, with a golden tooth reminiscent of Red's and a clawed scar matching Razz's on his left eye. The trench coat he wore covered him nearly head to toe, black with gold accents on the zippers and hem and a fur-trimmed hood currently pulled over his head.

"a bit further probably, m'lord tends to be more careless of his surroundings when angry." The skeleton replied in a voice so quiet Edge almost had to strain his hearing to pick up the words.

Despite the quiet utterance, Razz seemed to immediately hear the statement. "MUTT, THERE YOU ARE! WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!" He yells, Red apparently forgotten as he does a 180, turning his furious gaze onto his brother.

"i was finishing the last of the tasks you had assigned, as our guests are quite a bit earlier than we expected. also m'lord i feel it would be wise not to attack our guests, especially bot out in the open." Slim states only slightly louder than before.

 _M'lord? Mutt?_ Either Edge had missed something in Rus's pamphlet about Razz holding a title and Slim being a dog, or these two just had the oddest ways of addressing each other.

Surprisingly, Razz relents at his brother's words (mostly) dropping his aggressive stance to look back at their group. "FINE THEN. MUTT, IDIOT PUPIL, GET EVERYONE THE REST OF THE WAY TO THE HOUSE; NO NEED TO LET UNDYNE'S CAMERAS SEE MORE THAN THEY HAVE TO."

"i still resent that title."

"AND WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT, I STILL DON'T CARE. NOW GET GOING, I'M GOING TO FINISH UP MY PATROL AND BE BACK IN AN HOUR. DO NOT BREAK ANYTHING." Razz warns.

"That was one time and an accident!" Rus shouts back as Razz continues in the direction of Waterfall, eventually disappearing into the fog in the direction they'd come from.

After a short moment of quiet Comic pipes up with an unnecessary amount of enthusiasm. "okay! i think there's an open shortcut not too far from here from the last time i visited, so let's just-" He's stopped as Red grabs the fleeing prankster by the shoulder.

"not so fast funny guy. i got a bone ta pick with ya fer this stupid shit." Comic manages a weak chuckle 

"i really am sorry red, i thought i messaged razz-"

"don't want excuses 'n i don't want an apology either, i want this to never happen again, got it?" His brother growls lowly and Edge can't quite find it in his heart to feel badly for Comic. That small misunderstanding very nearly turned into something dangerous and just because nothing had happened this time didn't mean that it couldn't go wrong in the future.

"uh, yeah. i got it red." Comic's cheery facade deflates and he averts his eyes, guilt clear in his tone. 

Red slowly lets him go and he and Slim start leading the way to their shortcut destination, something that Edge is certainly not looking forward to after their last transportation fiasco

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took a lot longer to get out than I meant it to 😅 sorry 'bout that...
> 
> Thank you for reading! As always, criticism is welcome, I can't grow without it after all :p

**Author's Note:**

> Writing has not been my friend lately, been banging my head against the wall for way too long with the next chapter of DoS for the longest time, so I'm hoping that working on this series might help pull me outta my funk.
> 
> As always, criticism is always welcome and thank you for reading!


End file.
